The Story

Ok, ok, as some of you (and I am really flattered that there are some comments on the blog again) seem to be really interested in my little story I won't let you down. Most of you lab-people know how to play with dry-ice - you put a little bit in an Eppendorf tube or in the sink, quite harmless and funny, although that one tube at STI which almost hit my eye after punching through a styrophoam box was quite impressive... Anyway, I havn't learnt my lesson or I havn't been fooling around in the lab much lately so that I didn't think a lot when I had to carry a frozen tube with parasites from one building to the next. Of course it has to be wraped in two layers as it is biohazardous and you all know those nice white plastic containers with the orange lid that close very thightly, the ideal transport system unless you use dry-ice instead of normal ice. To cut a long story short, on the way back the now empty container (but now full with CO2 from the former dry-ice) got bigger and bigger and finally exploded in my hands. The BANG was quite impressive and it took a while before I realised that my fingers were all numb and tingeling and a closer look revealed some blood too. Back in the lab people took good care of me and sent me to the hospital as you have to report work relatad injuries. The fingers that weren't bleeding started to become blue and red from the impact of the explosion and the coldness of the dry-ice. Luckily it looked worse than it was and I had just some scratches, bruises and swollen fingers but nothing missing or broken as you can see on the picture already posted without permission by Shinji ;-)